Mission Statement

It is the mission of the Bay Lakes Knitting Guild to give knitters of all skill levels the opportunity to get to know other knitters, to learn new techniques, and to share their ideas, resources, and talents with the community.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

BLKG 2nd Annual Design-A-Thon

It is time for us to get really, really, REALLY serious
about the Design-A-Thon.I don’t know
about you, but I have a couple ideas bouncing around in my head.By this point in time the ideas should be
bouncing around on my needles, but…

First
there are some dates that you need to make note of

March
– deadline for submission and payment of $5 per item

April
– the judging

May
– the awards presentation

General
Information about the Design-A-Thon

Last
year we “published” a booklet of patterns.If you are sharing your pattern, the pattern MUST be turned along with
your entry.

Your
entries will be held until the May meeting when the awards are presented.This give us time to photograph and proof the
patterns.It also allows us to display
our work once again for all to see.

There
are two categories.Professional and
Recreational.You are a professional if
you:

1) Sell your work

2) Sell your patterns

3) Teach for money

Judging will be done by all members
present at the April meeting

What
Design is

There
are many definitions of Design.

To
sketch or plan a product before it is constructed

To
create, fashion, execute, or construct something according to plan

To
devise or contrive

To
plan and make something artistically or skillfullyThe
arrangement or pattern of elements or features

All
of this is in the 2013 handout, so if you kept that, you can skip this part!

Decisions
and actions

1)
What do you want to knit?Sweater, baby
blanket, or a scarf?Maybe a shawl, cowl or hat?Look for something you want to make.

2)
Take measurements.WRITE THEM DOWN.

3)
Choose your yarn.This will be the heart
and soul of your project.The yarn
determines your color, texture, and stitch pattern.If the yarn is bumpy or fluffy or
multicolored, then you may want your stitches to be simple garter or
stockinette.Highly colored yarn may
mask a fancy stitch pattern, so stick to simple stitches here too.If you have found the coolest stitch pattern,
then go for a yarn that is simple in color and texture.If your stitches re going to be stockinette
or garter then by all means feel free to choose yarn with bumps or lots of
color changes.

4)
Choose your stitch pattern.

5)
Swatch.I know.The evil swatch.A waste of time?I assure you, it is not.Your yarn and needle choice will make or
break your project.It is recommended
that your swatch be at LEAST 4 inches in width and 5 inches in length.It needs to be large enough for two full
repeats of the stitch pattern and two full repeats of the stitch rows.You may have to adjust the size of your
project or change your needle size in order to have your chosen stitch pattern
fit the size of your chosen project.Remember that some stitches (ribbing and cable, for example) draw your
yarn in.I know this all sounds quite
vague, because it is vague.There are
countless resources if you need help with swatching.

6)
Write your pattern as you work.You may
think you will remember what you did or any changes that you made, but you will
not.I speak from experience.Experience echoed by a million other
knitters.

Finishing
thoughts

When I change the sleeves of an
existing pattern from short to full length am I designing?No.When I change the collar of a pattern am I designing?No.When I change the collar and sleeve length AND the stitch pattern am I
designing?Yes.If I have changed the pattern enough that the
original designer would have trouble recognizing it, I am designing.

Personally,
I doubt that anyone so going to knit something that someone has not knit
before.We are dealing with two stitches
here.Knit stitches and purl stitches,
everything else is just a variation of those two stitches.And when it comes right down to it, a purl
stitch is just a backward knit stitch.Now we are down to one stitch.

Not
until around the 1850’s did we begin to write patterns down.Knitting without a pattern?!?!What did they know that we don’t?Have fun with this.Challenge yourselves!